A new start when the lockdown comes to an end

For weeks, we have been limited in what we could do and where we could go. It looked like one life or one period or age had come to a close and another way of living came to the forefront.

Several countries loosening the restrictions of the lockdown offer a totally different world than before the corona crisis. Many people had now several weeks to think about their way of life and are wondering how they shall have to continue in this world where nothing shall seem to be the same as before.

“Most of us think that we can change our lives if we just summon the willpower and try even harder this time around,”

says Alan Deutschman, the former executive director of Unboundary, a firm that counsels corporations on how to navigate change.

 “It’s exceptionally hard to make life changes, and our efforts are usually doomed to failure when we try to do it on our own.”

For New Year's resolutions it is well known that mostly when Spring arrives they are all gone or forgotten. To suggest that most people will never change, no matter how much they want to, seems almost giving no opportunity to believe positively in mankind.

In many of the so-called civilised countries, you may find bookstore shelves swollen with the latest self-help books, and life-change gurus like Anthony Robbins, Dr. Phil and, yes, Oprah are pop-culture icons. There are the Experience, Observation, Awareness, even a Fear Guru next to the guru who tends to demoralize us. And for all these gurus there was a lof of screening time on television lately. Bounded to the house, many also came hooked tot the screen wich brought all the bad news about corona, but also brought programs about people who had difficulties with coping with themselves as well with others.

For many people, it also looked difficult to accept themselves for who and what they are.

We noticed also that in this period of the CoViD-19 pandemic several people looked on the net for answers about the role of God in this matter. Many also sought for a spiritual guru. Others looked on social media to others to find out how they were coping with this present situation. Some also tried to learn from the one who hasn't reached the top. It was as if they needed a sibling to relate to their father.
What does not seem bad, is that some people went looking for themselves, and after knowing self, God, world drama history,... they found themselves more related to the divine Creator God. They came to feel that though at other times we are so busy to have contact with other people, that we forget a much more important contact.

In quarantine many become confronted with That Higher Being, coming to feel there is no one between them, there also not being restraints, Someone Who accepts them the way they are.

I t can well be that in this period we took more time to try to impress Him by moulding our character to the one He loves i.e imbibe virtues and give up our bad habits. Did you felt also closer to HIm? So that's kind of evergreen feeling because you are growing with Him and not just getting prepared to showcase self in front of Him after end of the present life. (?)

It is well know we all want to do some things our own way. 

"What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. The mind doesn’t direct the will. The mind is actually captive to what the will wants, and the will itself, in turn, is captive to what the heart wants." 

Having been captive now for some weeks, in our own cocoon, we had enough time to think about ourselves and about our relationship with others and with our Maker.

Having had so much time, many considered if this would not be the moment to go to do it differently. The 8th of June was for the kids as for the parents like a new schoolyear, or a new start of a new and a different life.
This new situation made some people making a resolution and summoning up all their willpower does little good if, ultimately, their heart isn’t in it. Does this mean you should abandon any hope of change? Not at all. If you’re going to make a resolution, you should determine if the resolution is actually good. always you should check what is the driving desire. Is it a good one?

If your resolution is actually a good one, just do it. Go ahead and work out more, smoke or drink less, read your Bible more, pay down your debt and save more for retirement, focus on your marriage, spend more time with your children.
In all cases, we shall have to place ourselves in the surroundings with others. Our interaction with them is always going to influence our aims and actions.

Jesus gave us an example to follow and provide a helper, the Holy Spirit, who can change our desires and empower us to love God and neighbour. As Paul tells us,

 “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

 With us and our willpower, Jesus says, change is impossible,

 “but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

 As Cranmer realized, our wills are captive to what our hearts love, and we are powerless to change ourselves without the work of God’s Spirit changing our desires.

When you think through the resolutions you want to make for after Corona, here’s a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer as you ask God to work on your heart:

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Preceding

 Catholics facing a totally different Holy Week

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Additional reading

1. Social media, sympathy & shocks
2. The unseen enemy
3. Broken daily routines
4. Staying at home saves lives
5. A virus giving the world an opportunity to re-evaluate and change the way we live
6. Unlikely silence
7. Covid-19 Psalm 19 Isaiah 26 and the Evangelical Proof-Texters
8. 7 Ways To Boost Your Immune System in Lockdown
9. So many being afraid – reason enough to step in the boat with Christ
10. Love in the Time of Corona
11. Hosting a Virtual Seder During a Pandemic
12. 2020 World Time to pause

We should use the Bible every day

SOMETHING TO CHEW ON

Abraham Lincoln once said “Read the Bible for what, on reason, you can accept and take the rest on faith, and you will live and die a better man.” We know that not only will we die a better person for having read the Bible but if we are wise enough to obey its commands after reading them we shall also rise to live forever. Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

   

As we have now progressed well into 2009, how are our daily readings going? It is a great pity that so few read the Bible every day. How can we think godly if we don’t read God’s thoughts? In the natural we sometimes feel we get to know a certain author by being thoroughly familiar with his writings. 

Certainly those who have made a study of Shakespeare feel they are acquainted with him and his thought processes; so it is with any other writer who has left his works behind. It may be nice to know a human author this way but it in no way compares with getting to know God through His Word. In fact, it is completely impossible to obey the first command to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind if we do not constantly read His Book, pray and meditate upon His goodness and mercy to us.

  Remember John’s point about hating or loving our brethren? The last part of his question is, “How can he love God whom he has not seen?” How can we? It is impossible to love the unknown. We cannot love someone we have never seen, never heard from, never heard of. Only by becoming familiar with a person can we love them. In the natural this usually comes as a result of personal contact but it has occurred by correspondence. Many lovers first met by mail and the love grew even before they saw one another. Since we have never seen God it is only possible to love Him as a result of our familiarity with His Word and His spirit which he dwells in us with. It goes without saying that if we are not faithful in our daily readings in His Book, we will not love Him. How can we expect Him to save us if we break His first and most important command? Paul asks the question “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” His answer is, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

  It is this word of God that must fill our minds and hearts if we are to love Him, obey Him and receive from Him the crown of righteousness. To ignore the Bible readings is to ignore God. It won’t make much use what else we do if we don’t do them. That’s the trouble with the world today. Every man is doing that which is right in his own eyes. The world expresses it as “doing your own thing.” “Our own thing” will be of no value in the day of judgement.

 If we do not read our Bible regularly in January, we must not let February and the rest of the year take the same course. Making and breaking New Year’s resolutions is the butt of many jokes but not reading God’s Word is no joke whether it was a New Year’s resolution or not. If we cannot find time to read God’s book every day, just how much do we really love Him? Our actions are speaking louder than words.

  The Bible reading charts are not the only way to read the Bible but they are a very good way. Whatever way we use to read the Bible, we should use it and do it every day. It is good to do it as a family if possible. May the words Paul addressed to Timothy apply to us as well. “Continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them; And that from a child you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

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The reason why the majority of people are forgetful hearers of the Word of God, is because they are not constant readers of it.

Don’t count your troubles. Rather, count the challenges that are already stacking up higher than a pyramid before you. Whether you want to make a million this 2009 or not, it is entirely up to you. It is in your hands completely. And by a million, I don’t necessarily mean dollars. I mean all the other things besides. Like friends, kindly acts, gestures of goodwill to those who need them most.

  

 Set your sights high. Make a goal, and thereupon work at it with frenzied non-stop effort. Aim at becoming a “Goal-achievement millionaire.” That means in twelve months hence you will have reached your goals, solved your problems, secured inner peace of mind, mental refreshment.

 You will have made more friends than ever before, and in turn, you will find you are on the friendship list of a greater-than-ever range of people, too. This is a wonderful start.

  You may have made a few more dollars as well. But suddenly you find this is not so important. Your new concept of living, working out simple solutions to your vexing problems, finding that negative thoughts have no place in your mental environment, solving problems on a day-by-day basis with a strong, forthright, positive approach - these have suddenly converted you into a mental millionaire.

  Intimately associated with all this, come important facets in your spiritual life. This is a basic key to help solve all problems.

  Did you used to read the Scriptures on a regular daily basis? Maybe up to until a year or two ago. What happened in the interim? Bowed down by the cares of the world? Couldn’t be bothered? Too tired?

 Taking Christ into your life as a working partner is a top way to achieve your goal. He will help keep your computer mind working steadily and accurately. He will keep it oiled with the balm of enthusiasm, a sweet nature, a sober spirit and Christ-like temperament.

  There will be no more need to go mad at your offensive contemporaries. The well-adjusted computer is programmed to cope with such difficulties as they rear their ugly heads. But it is essential you walk hand-in-hand with the Master-mind at all times. With His aid, success is never more assured, never more gratifying and overwhelming in volume.

  Think positive right through 2009 and, without doubt, with Christ in your life your goals will spin into reality with frightening rapidity.

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- John Aldersley

> Bible Reading Plan